Under the Radar

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Eric Holder hails transparency progress

Attorney General Eric Holder hosted transparency advocates and even (gasp!) members of the general public at the Justice Department Monday for an event highlighting the progress the Obama administration claims to have made carrying out President Barack Obama's early pledge to run the most transparent government in U.S. history.

In Holder's speech marking the annual observation of Sunshine Week, the attorney general pointed to the guidelines he issued in 2009 which reversed an aspect of the Bush administration's Freedom of Information Act policy and called on agencies to err in favor of disclosure in more instances.

"These guidelines have shifted the way our entire federal government operates. They established a presumption of openness," Holder said in his seven-minute address in Justice's Great Hall. "We've made meaningful, measurable progress."

Some openness advocates, including some of those in attendance, dispute the impact of Holder's memorandum. The FOIA Project issued a report earlier this month saying there was no evidence of a change in the handling of cases that go to court. Some lawyers deeply involved in FOIA cases told POLITICO recently that the administration's posture in such disputes was as resistant to disclosure as the Bush administration had been—or even worse.

However, there's some evidence that more government information is making it out without litigation. The White House says use of FOIA exemptions is down and years-long backlogs of old requests are being reduced. Most agencies are putting more databases online, where they can be retrieved without the need for a FOIA request.

In his remarks, Holder announced two modest improvements in FOIA practices at the Justice Department. DOJ is making it easier for the public to submit requests to department leadership offices, like his, and will allow requesters to track the requests online. In addition, monthly logs of FOIA requests to those offices will be posted online. (That kind of information has occasionally been made public in the past, but usually only in response to a formal FOIA request seeking the FOIA log.)

A fact sheet released by the Justice Department Monday pointed to some improvements that are significant and others which seem to fall short of promises.

Justice's Foreign Agents Registration Act office has put most of its data online, which may not seem like a big deal to folks used to sifting through government data online. However, to those of us who spent time in the short-staffed, disorganized reading room piled with paper files that appeared to be in danger of burying staff and visitors alike, having the stuff on the web is an order-of-magnitude improvement.

On the other hand, the Justice Department pledged in 2010 to "begin posting the Attorney General's calendar on a monthly basis." The fact sheet out Monday refers to "multiple months" being made public. The actual figure is nine and a half out of the past 37 months. The last monthly calendar to emerge was from one year ago.

Holder acknowledged Monday that the administration's transparency efforts are a work in progress. "Sunshine Week is an important reminder that this is no time to become complacent," he said.